Version History

Contents

Overview

This document captures what are considered best practices for serializing ontologies, so that they can be version controlled most efficiently using git. Doing so requires a canonical ordering of lines within each ontology file.

The following rules MUST be followed when reviewing this document, these are taken from IETF RFC 2119 (simplified):

1. MUST: This word means that the definition is an absolute requirement of the specification.

2. MUST NOT: This phrase means that the definition is an absolute prohibition of the specification.

3. SHOULD: This word means that there may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances to ignore a particular item, but the full implications MUST be understood and carefully weighed before choosing a different course.

4. SHOULD NOT: This phrase means that there may exist valid reasons in particular circumstances when the particular behavior is acceptable or even useful, but the full implications should be understood and the case carefully weighed before implementing any behavior described with this label.

5. MAY: This word means that an item is truly optional. One vendor may choose to include the item because a particular marketplace requires it or because the vendor feels that it enhances the product while another vendor may omit the same item.

Syntax

According to the OWL 2 Web Ontology Language Document Overview (Second Edition), the primary exchange syntax for OWL 2 is RDF/XML. Therefore, every IOF ontology MUST be serialized in the RDF/XML syntax, using more specific rules explained in the subsequent sections.

Base IRI

Default Namespace

Appendix

Voting